A Geodatabase for supporting planning and management of mining activities: the case of Piemonte Region.

Mining activities can contribute to sustainable development, focusing on economic, environmental and community aspects. To this purpose, it appears essential to investigate the spatial dimension of mining operations in order to have a clear picture of the full range of impacts in terms of both opportunities and constrains. The paper illustrates the construction of a geodatabase for supporting planning and management of mining activities in Piedmont Region (Northern Italy). In the geodatabase all the quarries located in the area are represented, distinguishing by active and inactive sites that have been further divided according to the main categories of extracted materials, namely aggregates, industrial minerals and ornamental stones. The article discusses how the regional mining mapping can offer an integrated and interdisciplinary representation of the territory under analysis, thus supporting the decision-making processes in the context of the activities related to the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the planning of mining operations.